Key Information

Please take a few moments to read these organisational notes for our school.

I hope that you find them useful and informative.

Welcome

Welcome to All Hallows Primary School, to all new and existing parents. We are very proud of our school, and the children. We continue to go from strength to strength, and hope that you feel part of this exciting journey.

Our Golden Reward behaviour policy was once again very successful last year, evidenced by a further reduction in negative sanctions, and a significant increase in the number of children meeting targets. We will continue with the same system this year, with each child working towards the end of term Golden Reward. Our Golden Rules are based on three all inclusive areas:

Be kind and respectful to everyone and everything.

Use good manners.

Follow instructions.

We pride ourselves upon the friendly, welcoming atmosphere in school. We hope that all staff are easy to approach and talk to. Please do come and see us if you ever have any questions or suggestions. I am always on the yard at the start and end of the day, so please do come and chat to me if you have any questions or suggestions. By working closely together we can continue to make a difference and make our school a rewarding place to learn.

School organiser

Every child has a school organiser. This should be brought back to school every day. Please take time to read and sign our home-school agreement and behaviour contract. Closer reading of the organiser will show how we are asking you to support our high expectations. The organiser will also contain your child’s targets for the term ahead. When you hear your child read at home, please complete a section for the relevant week. If you have a specific message that you wish to pass onto the class teacher in writing, it is best if you put this in a letter and pass it on via your child.

Inset days

We will have 5 school closure days for in-service training. -

Communication

A newsletter will be sent home via pupil post every Friday. Please take time to read this important letter. The newsletter is also posted on our school website. Please keep a regular check on our external notice boards and entrance area for other notices. Each term the class teacher will write to you with details about their class and work. Other letters are sent home as required. Remember that you may need to dig deep to the bottom of those bags! Our school website, contains a lot of useful information, newsletters etc. We use a text messaging service for urgent contacts, and this appears to be working well, but please let us know if your mobile number changes.

School times

Ideally, children should arrive at school no earlier than 8.40 a.m. For security reasons, gates will be locked until 8.30 a.m. A teacher will be on duty from 8.40 a.m. School starts at 8.50 a.m. BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BELL WILL BE RUNG AT 8.47am. As soon as the morning bell goes, we expect all children to line up. To help with a smooth start to the day we kindly ask that you leave your child at this point and do not follow them into school — we want our children to become independent, and our corridors are already very narrow and congested. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Our lunch break will be from 12.10 until 1.00 (12.00 for the Foundation and 12.00 for Key Stage 1 children).

School finishes at 3.20 p.m. and children can be collected from the exit nearest their classroom. For security reasons, the external gates will not be open until 3.15 p.m.

Dinners

We operate a very popular single choice menu, details of which can be found on displays around school. We also send a copy of the menu home to all parents. Dinners can be paid for using our online system, and we are working towards becoming a cashless school. Alternatively, we can only accept dinner orders and money on a Monday morning. Please

• Put the correct money in a sealed envelope.

• Write on the envelope your child’s name, class, and days they would like to stay dinners.

• Give the envelope to your child who will pass it onto the class teacher. The teacher will ask for dinner orders during Monday morning registration and send these to the school office.

We have developed a ‘Lunchtime Charter’ with the children, based upon respect. Our team of Midday Supervisors are fantastic people, who work very hard. Our expectations of the children are very high, encouraging politeness, good manners, and a share and care attitude. We have a brilliant reward system whereby the lunchtime staff handout tokens to the children, which go into our Captain’s Table prize draw. Once a month, children who exceed all our expectations may be chosen to sit on our ‘Captain’s Table,’ complete with napkins, goodies, stickers and a vase of flowers! The children really enjoy this, and it works as an excellent incentive. If a child lets themselves down during dinnertime the following action will be taken:

• On the first incidence, their name is logged in our lunchtime book.

• On the second incidence, their name is logged in our lunchtime book­

• On the third incidence, parents are contacted by letter.

• If there is a fourth incidence, a letter will be sent home warning parents that any further incidence during the term could result in the child having their lunch on their own for a fixed period.

• On the fifth incidence the child will be isolated at lunchtime for a fixed period.

• A lunchtime ban will be given as a last resort, and parents/carers will need to make arrangements to collect their child for the dinner period. This will be used where none of the above have been effective.

Obviously, we hope that we will never have to take such actions, but we also felt that it was important that you knew about our set procedures. We want our lunchtimes to be a happy, safe and rewarding experience for everyone.

If your child stays for packed lunches, we ask that you base its contents upon healthy options wherever possible. No sweets, fizzy drinks, or hot flasks are allowed.

Little things that help us

Sorry if this sounds like an officious list, but the intention is to ensure a consistency of approach.

Each day your child should bring to school

ü Their book bag, reading books and organiser.

ü Any homework.

ü Their P.E. kit, which can stay in school for the week, and be taken home on a Friday to be washed. The P.E. kit uniform of a white t-shirt, navy blue shorts and white socks should be adhered to.

ü A pencil case and crayons if they want oneü A coat in case of poor weather.

ü A small bag — large bags can cause obstructions.

ü Their water bottle (water only please).

ü A healthy snack for breaktime (Key Stage 2)

ü Wear the correct school uniform

ü A SMILE.

Please note that the following are not allowed in school

Mobile phones

Toys or games (except on ‘Toy days.’)

Children’s own footballs or play equipment

Sweets or chewing gum

Fizzy drinks or hot flasks (health and safety).

Our school is a no smoking site (this includes e-cigarettes)., and dogs are not allowed within the school grounds at any time.

Thank you for your help.

Uniform

All children are expected to wear the full school uniform on a daily basis. This includes black shoes. ­We feel that this is an important part of our whole school ethos.

SCHOOL UNIFORM AT ALL HALLOWS

We want our children to take pride in their appearance, and we kindly ask that you support our policy.

White or red polo shirt (preferably with school logo)

Red sweatshirt (must have school logo)

Red cardigan (must have school logo)

Grey school trousers, shorts, skirt or pinafore dress

Black socks (boys)

White socks (girls)

Grey tights

Sensible black school shoes (in the Winter school plain black boots are suitable for girls)

Red check dresses can be worn by girls from Easter through to October half term when appropriate (white socks)

Red or black headband (no flowers or bows on this please) or hair ties.

For PE children should wear a plain white t-shirt The children will also need navy blue shorts, white socks and trainers/plimsolls.

Please note that other than stud earrings and watches, no jewellery should be worn.

PLEASE COULD YOU ENSURE THAT YOUR CHILD’S NAME IS CLEARLY LABELLED IN ALL OF THEIR UNIFORM.

THANK YOU.

Absence

If your child is unwell and unable to attend school, it is important that you let us know on the first morning of absence. This can be through a telephone call, through an absence note, or by calling in to see us. If we have not heard from you, we will usually try to phone to seek clarification for your child’s absence.

As with all Nottinghamshire County schools, holidays during term times is now no longer authorised, except in exceptional circumstances. If you wish to be considered for term time leave, please write a letter to the Head Teacher, giving as much notice as possible. Your support would be appreciated.

Administration of medicine

From time to time, parents request that the school should dispense medicines which need to be administered at regular intervals to children.

These requests fall into two categories:

1. Children who require emergency medication on a long term basis because of the chronic nature of their illness (for example, asthma and epilepsy)

2. Children who are suffering from casual ailments (coughs, colds etc)

The Head teacher/Leadership Team will administer medicines where there is a written request. Forms are available from the school office. On occasions, the office managers will administer medicines with the consent of the Head Teacher. Parents need to be aware that whilst every effort will be made to administer medicines at the correct time, there may be occasions where this does not happen due to the busy nature of the school day. Wherever possible parents/carers are encouraged to come into school to administer medicines, or work dosages around home schedules. For casual ailments it is often possible for doses of medication to be given outside school hours. Medicines are kept in the locked store, or fridge. A log of dosage is kept.

For the school to agree to assist in long term medication:

Parents must write to the school giving authorisation for medicines to be administered to their children. This needs to include instructions regarding the quantity and frequency of administration

The medicines must be brought into school in a properly labeled container which states:

(a) The name of the medicine, (b) The dosage and (c) The time of administration

Where possible the medicine should be self-administered under the supervision of an adult. Medicines will be kept in a secure place by staff in accordance with safety requirements

Where long term needs for emergency medication exist, the school will require specific guidance on the nature of the likely emergency and how to cope with it while awaiting paramedical assistance.

Detailed written instructions should be sent to the school and the parent/guardian should liaise with their child's class teacher. If the emergency is likely to be of a serious nature, emergency contact numbers must be given where an adult is available at all times.

Inhalers should be in school the whole time, and clearly labelled. These should be kept in the classroom for ease of access.

Head lice

Head lice are a very common problem in every school, and can cause a great deal of stress and anxiety. You can help reduce the incidence of head lice by checking your child’s hair on a weekly basis. A regular comb on conditioned hair with a fine toothed comb is recommended. Thank you for your help.

Parking and safety.

Our aim is to encourage children to arrive safely at school by foot. Where the use of a car is unavoidable, please park carefully with due consideration to our neighbours and pedestrians. ‘The Chesterfield Arms’ very kindly allow us to use their car park. Please park carefully, and with due consideration to the landlord and the needs of the publicans (the top entrance area is often used for deliveries). At no time should cars park or stop on the zig zag lines outside the school gates. Our local police officer and Junior Road Safety Officers regularly patrol the area at key times.

School trips and visitors

As a result of our exciting curriculum your child will be involved in several visits or school events. To fund these additional activities we generally have to seek a contribution from our parents, although we also ensure that some of our school budget is set aside to subsidise these. The class teachers will inform you about these visits as soon as possible, and will only organise visits where appropriate. Thank you in advance for supporting these activities. We do invite a lot of visitors to school, especially theatre groups, and wherever possible we fund these ourselves.

Help

If you would like to help in school (reading, swimming observing etc), please contact your child’s class teacher. Please note that all helpers will have to have a List 99/child protection check. Thank you for all your help.

‘The Kabin’

We are very lucky to be able to offer an excellent out of school care service, called ‘The Kabin.’ For more information about charges, times and availability, please call into the ‘The Kabin’ before or after school, or call 9617698.

PTA

You are all members of our PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION which raises funds for the school. You are all warmly invited to attend our meetings and help out in any way that you can. The PTA have their own notice board on the top playground.

Leadership Team

Our school leadership structure is as follows:

Head Teacher – Mr Graham

Assistant Head Teachers – Miss Clark and Miss Chambers

Key Stage coordinators – Mrs Baker and Mrs Gillett.

Assessment leader - Mr Gillett.

Home learning

Home learning can be a contentious issue, but it is an important part of our learning process. Your support would be much appreciated. Please ensure that your child completes their activities and brings it back to school at the appropriate time. You will see from our School Improvement Plan, that spelling is one of our key areas, and you can play a significant role in supporting your child in this area.